SAN DIEGO ---- A good Chargers season got better. All because a
legend is closer to legendary status.

Yet again, Air Coryell converted.

Don Coryell is a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist. That's
great news, which would only improve by removing one word:
"finalist."

Coryell, the iconic Chargers coach, is a Hall of Famer. Anyone
knows that.

Don Macek knows it now ---- he wasn't sure then.

Dan Fouts was Air Coryell's trigger man, but Macek, the center,
slid the bullet down the barrel.

When Air Coryell launched, Macek heard but one question: "You
guys ever going to the run the ball?''

Macek laughs now –--- he laughed then.

"I don't think so,'' he would say, "this is working pretty
good.''

Macek, an Escondido resident, is among those Chargers backers
who are upbeat over Coryell's advancement. Coryell's tardy
certification as one of the NFL's most prolific innovators could
soon be stamped.

Coryell, 85, became a finalist for the first time Friday. He'll
learn on the eve of next month's Super Bowl if he's in.

That Coryell's nose has been pressed against the Hall of Fame
window for 23 years is a crime in Macek's eyes.

But first, back to Macek's story, which came in Coryell's first
Chargers season ---- 1978, after he replaced Tom Prothro.

"We had been running Prothro's offense, but once it didn't look
like we were going to make the playoffs, we changed,'' Macek said,
his voice rising like the avalanche of points soon to come. "We
threw the ball all over the place, and at first it was
shocking.''

The change started and never stopped. That includes the time
after Coryell scratched out his final play on the blackboard.

Coryell's fingerprints can be found on playbooks all over this
pass-happy league. It's the same league that viewed Coryell as a
coach cooked by the San Diego sun.

"People said we were crazy,'' Macek said.

Nuts? That is Coryell being denied because of his NFL sin: never
making a Super Bowl.

"Somehow the Hall of Fame has become more about winning Super
Bowls than what it is supposed to be: contributions to football,''
Macek said. "I think there are a lot of people in the Hall of Fame
who haven't contributed as much as Don Coryell.''

What's interesting is that fans can contribute by voting at
www.fanschoice.com. They can boost the chances of a coach whose
offense was wireless when others were dial-up ---- if that.

"He absolutely revolutionized the game to what it is today,''
Macek said. "Look at any of these passing attacks –--- Chargers,
Cowboys ---– they all start from Don Coryell.''

The Chargers' Norv Turner learned at Ernie Zampese's feet when
he was with the Rams; Zampese was pulling the Air Coryell levels
back in the day.

"He means so much to so many different people that have been in
this game,'' Turner said. "This system and this style started with
him, and it's gone around to so many different players and coaches
that you can't name them all.''